The portrayal of women in Maltese print media by two female contributors

Abstract

The main objectives of this dissertation were to examine whether Carmen Carbonaro and Pauline Miceli, as two female producers of knowledge in the 1950s and the 1980s respectively, sought to challenge the norms and instigate change driven by feminist values of emancipation, or to perpetuate the status quo through their messages. Both women presented radio programmes targeted at female audiences, and both produced written content aimed at female readers. This study focuses on the latter, aiming to analyze the messages that were conveyed to women by the two writers in their respective time periods and to examine how these messages differed from each other in terms of topic and approach. This dissertation therefore explores the media’s role in reinforcing gender stereotypes or critically examining them. The aims of this research were achieved through a feminist epistemology and the adoption of a mixed method approach. The results of this study manifest that both Carbonaro and Miceli redefined the perception of knowledge production in their time – from something that only men did to something that women could do too. However, while Carbonaro’s writing reinforced the gender role expectations of the time, Miceli used her articles to agitate for change, defying the Church’s teachings in the process. Despite this stark contrast between the two writers, and despite the fact that Pauline Miceli stands out as the obvious nonconformist in terms of content, Carmen Carbonaro was also a trailblazer in her own way.